1,000 Yards Ain't What It Used To Be

As long as I can remember, the measuring stick that indicted a great season for an NFL running back was 1,000 yards total rushing in a season.  It is still something that writers, broadcasters, and assorted talking heads point to and tell us that "RB Jacques LeStrapp has had a terrific season with 1,105 yards gained rushing", but did he really have great season?  Of course he did, but consider the following.

In 2024, sixteen NFL running backs finished with at least 1,000 yards gained, led by the Eagles' Saquon Barkley with 2,005 yards, and he sat out the 17th game of the season, and that brings me to my point.  Up until 1961, the NFL played a 12 game season.  In 1961 that number went up to 14 games.  It went to 16 games in 1978, and 17 games in 2023.  To achieve a thousand yards rushing back in the days of a twelve game season, a back had to average 83.3 yards a game.  When the season increased to 14 games, the average dropped to 71.4, then to 62.5 over 16 games, and then to the current number of 58.8 over 17 games.

I think that you see what I am getting at here. 

Jim Brown had seven season wherein he gained 1,000 or more yards, and he led the league in rushing in all but one of his nine seasons. Those two seasons when he didn't gain 1,000 yards?  He scraped by with 942 and 996 yards; one of those season was a twelve game season.  Three of his 1,000 yard seasons were achieved over twelve games.  Only five - Barkley, Derrick Henry, Brian Robinson, Jonathan Taylor, and Jahmyr Gibbs - of the 16 players who rushed for 1,000 yards in 2024  had a per game average that would have achieved 1,000 yards in a 12 game season.  

I mentioned sixteen players rushed for thousand yards this past season.  I pulled one season of Jim Brown's at random, 1958.  Brown ran for 1,527 yards (5.9 per carry) that year.  Not only was he the ONLY back to gain a thousand yards that year, but the guy in second place, Alan Ameche, amassed a total 791 yards, just slightly more than half of Brown's total.

In 1973, OJ Simpson became the first RB to crack the 2,000 yard barrier  when he gained 2,003 yards over 14 games, an average of 143.7 yds/game.  Pretty impressive.  2,000 yards has since been achieved seven other times, and all of them have exceeded Simpson's 1973 mark.  The record is held by Eric Dickerson with 2,105 over 16 games, 131.6 yds/game. 

When the NFL went to a 14 game schedule back in 1961, Pete Rozelle became the anti-Ford Frick and declared that there would be no asterisks in the NFL record books.  Season records would be season records regardless of the length of schedule, and good for him.  (For you kids out there, just Google "Ford Frick asterisks" if you don't understand what I just said.)  None of this is meant to denigrate the achievements of players who run for a thousand yards in the current day, but maybe it will just rekindle the respect for the achievements that guys like Brown, Dickerson, and Barry Sanders in earlier days.

I came up with all this by just sitting at the ol' iMac and cruising through Pro Football Reference for about thirty or so minutes this morning.  One of the things that this site does is that it will pro-rate a player's career stats over a 17 game schedule. So I just picked out ten guys at random to see what they would have averaged over a 17 game season.  This is not all inclusive and I obviously left a lot of great players off of the list, but consider these figures:

	Per Season, pro-rated over 17 games
Jim Brown	1,774
Barry Sanders	1,697
Eric Dickerson	1,544
Walter Payton	1,497
OJ Simpson	1,415
Earl Campbell	1,391
Emmitt Smith	1,381
Tony Dorsett	1,252
Jerome Bettis	1,210
Franco Harris	1,101
Barry Foster	1,081

These are the conclusions that I came up with after looking at these numbers.  (1) Jim Brown was the GOAT, and (2) Barry Sanders was and is under appreciated.

Now you know why their pictures grace the top of this post.

 

To Absent Scoundrels - OJ Simpson and Cyril Wecht

There are some figures in our culture who, when they leave this mortal coil, deserve commentary, but how can we ever call then Absent Friends?  So welcome to this new Grandstander category, Absent Scoundrels, and let me tell you, I am hoping that I'm still around so I can write the Entry of at least specific one one of these in the future.   Regardless, let us tell the tales of the first of these Scoundrels.

OJ Simpson

1947-2024

When Orenthal James Simpson died last month at the age of 76, a common theme of the news reporting of the death went something along the lines of "Did anyone ever fall from the heights of popularity and fame into infamy as fast and as far as OJ Simpson?"

He came upon the national scene as a Heisman Trophy winning running back at the University of Southern California.  He was the overall #1 draft choice in the NFL's 1969 Draft, and went on to a Hall of Fame career with the Buffalo Bills and, briefly, the San Francisco 49ers. (More on football later.)  He was the first running back to rush for 2,000 yards in a season in what was then a 14 game season.  He was so popular that he became the first black athlete to become commercial spokesman for corporate America.  Who OJ ran through airports for Hertz Rent-A-Car, he opened the doors that Michael Jordan, LeBron James, Serena Williams, Patrick Mahomes and others walked through in subsequent generations.  He became a sportscaster and an actor of some moderate note.  How can anyone ever forget him as Nordberg in all of those Naked Gun/Police Story movies?

Then came the fall. His ex-wife and her friend were murdered in cold blood outside of OJ's home in Los Angeles.  He was arrested - and if you saw it, you will never forget that LA freeway police chase of Simpson's white Ford Bronco.  He was tried and acquitted of the murders, but the court of public opinion never forgave him, and he became an outcast and a pariah for the rest of his life.  Years later, he was arrested again for armed robbery and served hard time for that crime until his release on parole a few years ago.

Simpson smirks with lawyer 

Johnny Cochran upon 

acquittal of his wife's murer.

But let me mention one specific OJ football memory that I have from well before The Fall.  It was September 28, 1975 and the Bills were playing the Steelers at Three Rivers Stadium, and yes, I was there to witness the Bills defeat the Steelers 30-21.  In that game, Simpson had 28 carries for 227 yards, including one TD run of 88 yards.  Yes, 227 YARDS.  Think about it.  The Steelers were the defending Super Bowl Champs and would win that game again after the '75 season.  The Steel Curtain Defense - Greene, Greenwood, Holmes, White, Ham, Lambert, Blount, Schell and the rest of them was at it's absolute peak.  Considering the team against whom he did it, some might say that this was the greatest single game a running back ever had.

That 88 yard TD run?  I've included it for you HERE.

He may well be among the top ten or fifteen football players ever, but when he died few people felt bad about it.

Dr. Cyril Wecht

1931-2024

Cyril Wecht was forensic pathologist, and may well have been one oof the smartest and most intelligent people to ever serve in his field.   In that role was consulted nationwide and served as an "expert witness" in many many famous cases, including that of President Kennedy - he was a prominent debunker of the Warren Commission Report - and Elvis Presley.  He became a "talking head" on CNN and other national news outlets whenever a mysterious or infamous death and or murder was in the news.   He served as  Coroner for Allegheny County and was an Allegheny County  Commissioner, and in those roles, he was for a time a Big Cheese in Democratic politics in Allegheny County.

No question, as a pathologist and a coroner he knew his stuff as well or better than anyone.  As a public official, however, he proved to be a mean and small man, filled with hubris and vitriol.   His many letters to the editors of Pittsburgh newspapers  excoriating the editorial staff, or of anyone else who felt crossed him were venomous and hate filled.  My newspaper columnist friend Brian O'Neill can spend entire lunch hours telling stories of the profane letters that he received for Wecht over the years.  A local Pittsburgh radio personality told the story this week of how Wecht once called his mother, who worked in County Controller's office, the "C-word" right to her face in front of the office staff.   Stories such as this were legion upon the news of his death last week at the age of 93.

My friend Dan and I were discussing Wecht over lunch yesterday, and Dan observed "What kind of life did you lead if after you die, all anyone talks about is what a prick you were when you were alive?   Is that how you want to be remembered?"

Adios OJ and Cyril.  Only your families are going to miss you. Maybe.